People who only started following royal gossip when Prince Harry fell in love with then-Meghan Markle missed the years in which the British media regularly criticized Prince William. These days, you would think Prince William walks on water and Kate’s farts smell like roses, that’s how positive and sycophantic their coverage has become. But it was quite a regular thing, especially circa 2014-2016, for the British press to scornfully write about “work-shy Will” and “lazy Kate.” I still remember the well-deserved pile-on when it was revealed that William didn’t even commit to a part-time air ambulance pilot schedule, and he regularly skipped important events like the BAFTA simply because he didn’t feel like it. There were deep concerns, as late as 2016-17, that William would be petulant, entitled, lazy and blundering all of his life.
I bring all of that up because William has never enjoyed better press than when he’s selling out his brother and sister-in-law. But recent weeks have felt different. William went MIA for weeks right when King Charles and Princess Kate were dealing with medical issues. Now he’s arrogantly issuing self-serving statements about sensitive political issues, all while maintaining a deafening radio silence about his wife, who hasn’t been heard from in two months. Well, the Mail published this curious column from Amanda Platell: “Don’t lecture us all about Gaza, William… just tell us how Kate is.”
The shock waves hitting the House of Windsor this year have been relentless, not least among them the news that King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer. So it was heartening to see him meeting Rishi Sunak at Buckingham Palace this week, getting on with his job. Discussions between them turned to the importance of raising awareness for cancer charities and the Prime Minister commented on how well the King looked.
Rishi wasn’t the only one who thought so. The King’s appearance was a reassuring message of hope. He hadn’t lost his hair, as some of us feared, as a result of possible chemotherapy. Nor had he lost too much weight. He seemed in good heart.
But to me there was also something rather poignant about seeing him. It made me think about the Princess of Wales and how we haven’t seen her for so long. The most recent pictures I can find of Kate were taken on Christmas Day last year on the royal walk to church in Sandringham. It was January 17 when it was announced she had been admitted to hospital for unspecified surgery. She then spent two weeks in a private clinic before her planned three-month recuperative break from royal duties.
Can we even remember a time since she married William in 2011 when she was not there in our lives, smiling and laughing at official events or with her husband and her children? Her absence feels almost like a bereavement so used to her have we become. Wherever I go — the hairdresser, the butcher, shops, even in the street — I am asked about Kate by people who think I might have some information about the Princess because I am a journalist (I don’t).
Everyone’s desperate to find out what’s happening. How she is. When we’ll see her. But there is radio silence. If Charles can be open about his condition, why can’t we hear about how Kate is getting on?
William can pontificate foolishly about Gaza all he likes, but those of us who support and admire him and the Royal Family are not even vaguely interested. We just want to know about Kate. So please, William, stop lecturing us about the Middle East. And tell us that the wonderful woman you married — and who long ago captured our hearts — is doing OK.
In recent years, I’ve gotten the sense that the British media is under strict editorial guidance to handle William and Kate with kid gloves, especially since they were both “playing the game” starting in 2017-18. But Kate went missing for two months and Kensington Palace bungled the release of information… and people are starting to get unsettled. Then again, I believe that there are many rota people already have some idea about what happened to Kate, but there’s some kind of embargo on that information. This Platell column can be read as a threat, just the Mail pulling on William’s leash a bit, telling him “stop with the politics and give us something on Kate.” It’s remarkable that it’s taken two months for this shift to happen.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.